March 4th

Hello everyone 

My husband and I went to Oklahoma City today, partly to shop and partly to have a day out.  

We went to the Air Force base and shopped a little. 

Our youngest granddaughter turned 5 and we bought her  2 spring church dresses.  

I think maybe that’s  just  a southern thing, calling nice dresses “church dresses”- back when people were concerned about dressing properly for an occasion.  Some occasions called for a school dress, some called for a church dress and some called for a fancier, formal dress.  

The commissary just didn’t have many good deals or even reasonable prices. 

They do sell marked down meat in a freezer bunker.  

I’ve never bought this cut of pork but they look very lean - and I think I bought them just because they were $1 a package.  

The look like slices of loin that have been tenderized.  

I’m thinking tomorrow I’ll bread and pan sauté a package, serve on a bun, like a fast food pork sandwich.  

I saw this on Facebook and it made me laugh.  

March 4th everyone 

❤️Rhonda 

Casual couponing

One of my goals for 2024 was to do casual couponing a few times a month and I’ve pretty much done it.  

I don’t use paper coupons,  just digital coupons on the store webpage or app.  

I’m not trying to spend zero,  I just want to get products my family uses at as big a discount as I legally and reasonably can.  

There are many coupon experts out there.  

Look on Instagram or YouTube and you’ll find all the advice you can use.  

I’ve been doing my coupon shopping at Walgreens and DollarGeneral.  And just a few times at CVS.

I plan out my deals but I never know just how they will go until I check out.  

Today I got 2 big packs of Bounty towels,  3 toothpastes and 1 tooth brush. 

My out of pocket cash spent was $23ish (I  should have planned to spend Walgreens cash but I forgot and the cashier didn’t ask). I also used some digital coupons and some Walgreens rewards from last week) 

Walgreens gives out paper rewards -made the $4, $3 and $5 rewards under the toothpastes?  

And they give out Walgreens cash- see my earnings and balance on today’s receipt 

I never know exactly how a transaction will go but lately they have been going great!

At Dollar General, I use their digital coupons and combine them with sales and cash rewards.  

I’ve been happy with my purchases there too.  

I’ve got a nice stockpile at home and I just started making a pile for my daughter.  They are not low income but they are raising a family, and their property insurance and loan interest rates are going up, just like so many people.  

The main products I see with the biggest discounts and rewards are laundry products and dental products,  next are cosmetics and personal care like lotions, hair products, etc.  

I’ve also found recent deals on paper products.   And air freshener products- 

This way of shopping isn’t for everyone but I’m thankful for it and it’s helping us.  
 

❤️Rhonda 

Homemade soup and thrift store purchases

Hello everyone 

I made a batch of cabbage bean soup for our lunch and it was so fast to make with already having the carrots, onions and potatoes peeled and chopped.

I like this recipe from Lena 

Cabbage Bean Soup

She doesn’t blog anymore but she always was so sweet and had really helpful content.  

We had some cheese and crackers with our soup 

I went to 2 thrift stores this week.  I used to think our town had wonderful thrift stores.  

But I’ve been in a decluttering and downsize pattern for a while now and most stuff doesn’t appeal to me anyway.

I bought these vintage magazines and 1 little jigsaw puzzle.  I think my total cost was in the $3 range. 

This is the vegetable chopper I used.  

I bought it from Amazon but,this model is not available any longer but there are many similar ones available. 

I like it but it don’t get it out unless I’m chopping a lot of things.  The green grid thar pushes the vegs through the blades can be a little tricky to clean.  

Hope you’re all having a nice weekend 

❤️Rhonda 

Back to homemaking

Where did January and February go?  Wherever it was, they certainly went fast for me.  

But I’m ready to get back to normal homemaking, as normal as is possible anyway.  

So last night I wrote out a meal plan 

It’s not a day by day specific plan but I think we have all the ingredients on hand for these meals and they all sound good.  

To get a head start,  I decided to chop up some vegetables and I ended up doing a lot more veggies than first planned.  

I wanted to make a big salad to eat for lunches and for a supper side dish. 

I wanted to cut up onion, celery and bell pepper for the dirty rice I cooked today.  

The 5 pound bag of carrots in the fridge drawer were starting to grow roots.  

We had 3 onions on had and 1 was just starting to get soft.  

So, I processed all of them and they will be waiting in the fridge for future meals.  

Then I saw we had a half bag of potatoes. My husband peeled all them and I chopped them into cubes in the same chopper used for the onions, bell peppers, part of the carrots and celery.  

It feels good to have ingredients ready for some easier home cooked meals in the future.  

And I hope we don’t turn orange from eating  so many carrots. 

Our main meal today was dirty rice and it was so good!  

I browned a half pound of lean ground beef and then cooked it with about a half cup each onion, celery and bell pepper.  

Then I added about 3 cups of cooked  brown rice, about 2 cups of cooked red beans, 2 t Cajun seasoning and 1 t sage.  

It’s not pretty but it’s tasty.  

About my husband,  he had 3 doctor appointments this week.  He has a shoulder impingement and will start physical therapy next week.  

He also had treatments to his shoulder and back, he’s not good as new but is feeling a lot better.  

I’m very thankful that for now,  surgery is not in his future.  

Thank you all for the YouTube channel recommendations 👍👍👍

❤️Rhonda 

A few home changes and my current YouTube favorites

Hello everyone 

I wanted to write a blog post before the month of February ends.

January and February have not been a lot of fun. My husband spent about half of that time helping his parents. You all know he came back from one trip with a respiratory infection that stayed with him three weeks. Thankfully, I never caught it.

Then, on the second trip down there, he injured his shoulder. 

Today he got injections in his back that he gets about every three months. Tomorrow he will see the ortho specialist about his shoulder. We both thought if he just rested his shoulder, that it might heal on its own, but it’s been about 10 days and it is not getting better. The doctor he is seeing tomorrow is the one who did his last knee replacement, and we are confident that he will have the best treatment plan.  

My husband and I know we are not getting any younger and we have been making changes over the last few years to make our home for comfortable and manageable as we age.

About 6 years ago,  we put adjustable beds in the master bedroom and we both like them a lot.

When my husband had that respiratory bug and I was sleeping in one of the guest rooms to avoid getting sick,  I missed my adjustable bed.  

So,  after we thought about it,  we got some more adjustable beds and put them in this guest room.  

They will be comfortable for for guests and they will be comfortable for either me or my husband if we end up sleeping in that room. 

The Queen bed was moved next door.  It looks like a nice bed but I don’t like this older mattress at all.  

I would have preferred to just get rid of this bed, but my husband wanted to keep it. And any of you that are married know marriage involves compromise.

But our granddaughter likes sleeping in this bed so for now, it’s in that second bedroom.

This twin bed is the bed that same granddaughter slept in when her family lived with us for a year. It is a really good mattress.

It was in a closet, but I moved it into the sewing room, because if someone was staying in that bedroom, there wouldn’t be any room for their clothes in the closet, because that bed took up the closet.

There’s still a ton of stuff in this sewing room

But if I ever get back to sewing, I can always spread projects out on top of that twin bed

And it will be a place for someone to lay and take a nap. If we have a lot of guest it will be another space for sleeping.  

I rarely watch regular TV anymore. The shows just seems so fake or extreme, I just don’t enjoy them.

But there are several channels on YouTube that I do really like

I really like Meals with Maria.  She is a mom of three that lives in a normal looking house and she cooks normal food. She does it on a budget and without any drama.

https://youtube.com/@MealsWithMaria?si=07bYDuDdU7eqI-kg

Big Bankz does Urbex (Slang for urban exploration) He explores abandoned homes and buildings. I don’t know why it’s so interesting, but it is. My husband and some of the grandchildren enjoy watching him too. 

https://youtube.com/@BigBankz?si=1ebHR-hyjGhcncuN

Taco Stacks does scrapping, trash picking, cleaning out houses,  selling on eBay, buying abandoned storage building contents,  thrift shopping and sell at swap meets. 

https://youtube.com/@TacoStacks?si=bhyr7O4DCt46TZpY

I would call all of those shows G rated.

The only warning I would give is if you watch very much of Taco Stacks or urbex videos,  you will start cleaning out your drawers and closets 😊 

There are so many good YouTube channels.

But I’d love to learn of some more.

Please comment if you watch any that you think I would like

❤️Rhonda 

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